IF you're that good, prove it. That's Illawarra boxer Mark Lucas' simple message to fellow Aussie middleweight Michael Zerafa.
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One of the division's biggest stars, Zerafa is fresh off a pair of bouts with former world champion Jeff Horn - winning the first by devastating TKO and dropping the second in highly controversial circumstances in December.
Lucas and coach Nudge Mieli said they've twice agreed to fight Zerafa, and to two fallback bouts with fellow Melbournian Tej Singh, only to be later told fights with both were off the table.
"We read about Tej Singh supposedly being the most avoided fighter in the country and that was laughable for us, we'll fight him any time," Mieli said.
"I rang [promotor] Brian Amatruda and said 'we'll fight him', we had a date, agreed to terms. Not long after he rang me and asked 'would you fight Michael Zerafa?' Obviously we said yes straight away.
"We agreed, then we heard nothing. We got back in contact and got told Zerafa didn't want the fight 'because he's not a pavilion fighter, he's a Main-Event fighter'.
"Then we were back on with Singh, then he supposedly couldn't fight due to an injury but then he's booked to fight another guy on the same date. Someone's got to tell the truth somewhere."
Zerafa is strongly tipped to face the winner of the upcoming bout between Horn and rising star Tim Tszyu, while a potential pay-per-view bout with ageing legend Anthony Mundine has also been mooted.
Mieli says the latter bout would be nothing more than an easy payday given there's no shortage of worthy domestic challenges at middleweight - his charge the primary one.
"Choc was a legend of our sport but he's done, no one wants to see that fight," Mieli said.
"If Michael Zerafa's world class like he claims - and we've seen what's happened to him twice on the world stage - then fight us. Mark's been the OPBF champion, he's been the WBA [Oceania] champion. All we want is an opportunity.
"I really respect Tim Tsyzu, [promoter] Matty Rose and his team for what they've done because they've taken out everyone in Australia and they've built him domestically.
"He's got a world ranking and a huge following here because he's given guys great domestic fights in Australia. Zerafa's bad-mouthed Tim Tsyzu, he's bad-mouthed Jeff Horn, well, if he's as good as he's telling us he is, come beat Mark then.
"Don't go bad-mouthing those guys if you're not going to step up and fight the other guys who deserve the fight."
Frustrations in landing similar bouts first prompted Lucas to hang up the gloves three years ago. He ended a near two-year hiatus by losing a razor-thin split decision to Rocky Jerkic in February last year.
Eight weeks later he took on future Hall of Famer Sam Soliman over 12 rounds on just 19 days notice, losing a unanimous decision in what was the former IBF middleweight champion's farewell bout.
His most recent outing was convincing unanimous decision win over former IBO world champion Renold Quinlan in October, moving his record to 10-2.
The 30-year-old father of two said he's only interested in taking on the best for the remainder of his career.
"Zerafa's the biggest fight we can get at middleweight in Australia and that's what we want," Lucas said.
"I want those big fights against the best guys. That's who's left, there's no one else. I'm 30, I've done my apprenticeship I've been boxing for 16 years.
"The top crop of guys we're after now, they hide behind big names on their record, dodge the middle ground and just hope for one more payday rather than taking real fights.
"It's bullshit. I'm stuck waiting six and eight months, preparing for fights where guys pull out and avoid risk-taking moves. If you think you're at that level than prove it.
"It's not that complicated to me, if you're a fighter you fight. If you're elite and think you can school anyone then come and show it because they're not showing it right now."
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